Liquid Smoke

It's so good to have a place to return to,
even if that place isn't there anymore.
The last great audio recoding of the sun
was a faint hiss followed by in-flight Wi-Fi.
The sun has such an all-encompassing thermal embrace,
like a overly jolly aunt sprayed down with Shalimar
and liquid smoke. Get too close and you get torched.
Sorry we're close. Still, we're open daily
until someone shuts us up. Make it stop.
I’d like an orange and a fistful of money
just for getting out of bed every morning.
Actually, what I really need is a friendly keen clerk
to help me find things I don't even know I need.
I'll play clerk for you. Someday I'll tell someone
I was in the service sector in another life.
I drew lines as a boy, and then I turned them into letters.
I'll always have you, I said.